Suffolk Biodiversity Partnership News

The annual Suffolk FWAG Farm Conservation Award was held on 5th November 2014, sponsored by Ashton KCJ Solicitors.

Almost 80 people from an array of Suffolk’s farming and agricultural establishments came together at

Trinity Park in Ipswich to share the success of two outstanding businesses who won the Farm Conservation Award and the Tim Sloane Award. Guest speaker was Robin Page, writer for The Daily

Telegraph and former presenter of the BBC’s One Man and his Dog. He gave an enthralling talk about

his life, love of the countryside and his work to encourage British supermarkets to stock British food.

Ashton KCJ Agricultural Partner Jeanette Dennis who is a Trustee of Suffolk FWAG said: “It takes a lot of

courage for the farming community to put themselves forward for an award. This award celebrates the huge amount of farm work that farms and estates do to preserve our countryside for generations to come. There are so many great initiatives taking place on farms to preserve nature and encourage wildlife and natural vegetation - we want farmers and landowners to share their experiences. This is

what the Suffolk FWAG awards are all about.”

Winners of the Tim Sloane Award were E.J. Barker and Sons of Lodge Farm in Westhorpe near Stowmarket, who impressed the judges with the large number of wildlife-rich ponds on the farm and the amount of environmental interpretation they are undertaking. The standard of entry was extremely high, making it a hard decision for the judges, Genevieve Broad of SBP and Richard Symes of Earlsway Farm in Bramfield.

The hotly contested Farm Conservation Award was won by Frederick Hiams Ltd, a farming and vegetable growing and packing business based at Hilll Farm in Tuddenham near Bury St Edmunds. The judges, Richard Barnes of Frontier/Kings Seeds and AJ Paul of the Broxstead Estate in Sutton, Woodbridge, were bowled over by Charlie Hancock, Operations Director, and his attitude whereby he ‘treats everything as a crop’. The runner up was Bevills Farm at Bures, owned by the Probert family, where preserving and enhancing wildlife features for generations to come is now second nature to them. It was a very difficult decision for the judges.

David Barker, Patrick Barker, Genevieve Broad and Richard Symes - the Tim Sloane award.

Jeanette Dennis, Christopher Wilson, Diane Ling, Charlie Hancock, Richard Banes and A.J. Paul - the Farm Conservation Award